users 3

[fumei]

Hi gang.

Can't think of a better place to toss this out.

I have been asked to come up with a better term than "users".

This is a rather old issue really. However, apparently...ahem..."staff"...really hate it when they see "user" or "users" in documentation.

Within the tech community (application developers, network people etc), no doubt we will still use "users". Simply because that is what they are.

However, I am open to any and all suggestions for a different term when we are distributing stuff to, hmmmm, staff.

Of course, context is important. Personally, I think "all staff" is perfectly acceptable when it is communication directed to all staff. Like:

"All staff are reminded that downloading programs from the Internet is not permitted."

Ideas? What can we use instead of "users"?

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[SantaMufasa]

Candidly, folks, the reason why this thread has grown to 60 posts for a simple Thesaurus activity is because "users" is the most precise word for the context. Not to detract from the quality of Tracy's or the rest of our suggestions, but:

"Clients" is imprecise/ambiguous since implies either a commercial or a narrow technical meaning (i.e, "client/server") that differs from a person that is simply "using" an application.

"Customer" implies an (ambiguous) commercial relationship that may be extraneous to someone simply "using" an application.

...and the rest of the suggestions that pre-date these two seem equally imprecise/ambiguous/stilted.

Gerry, if you agree with this notion, then you can simply report to your word-replacement requestors that after an exhausive 4-day discussion on the topic amongst over 2 dozen international word-lovers, that we concluded that the replacement candidates were either imprecise or stilted when compared to the original term, "users". If your people choose to pursue this further, they are welcome to do so, but as far as your search and time investment is concerned, you are done.



Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[Olaf Doschke]

You know the "intel inside" sticker, surely. Do you know what's written on the sticker inside? Right: user outside.

Hmm, how about wait state causers? or workflow interrupters?

Jokes aside, how about talking to them as "you"? And it's no "user documentation", it's an "application documentation" or a manual. The same way its no user interface, but an application interface for the user or an application controler (from their point of view)...

Bye, Olaf.

 

[tomed]

How about Associate? I hear that used quite a bit now.

FYI - our docs are called End User Procedures. I guess we're a little behind the the PC dept.

 

[2ffat]

When I hear Accociate, I think of the mega-marts' sales people. I had to write at least one manual where I used computer operator instead of user. That got old, fast!

Keep I Simple & Short.

James P. Cottingham
-----------------------------------------
[sup]I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229![/sup]

 

[saw164]

I don't see a problem with users, i don't mind if i was called a user. People are too Uptight these days with all this PC Bull, Users fits them perfectly because they do just that, USE THE EQUPIMENT!but of course that is just my opinion.

 

[SantaMufasa]

The term, "end-user" is the term that leaders have chosen as the designated documentation term for application operators at one of the companies for which I work.

But because of the double entendre that sniggering (UK)/snickering (US) immatures place on the term, I have come to despise its use.

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)
[I can provide you with low-cost, remote Database Administration services: see our website and contact me via www.dasages.com]

 

[Remou]

I think part of the problem is not that 'user' can mean 'drug-user', but that it can mean 'one who takes but does not give': 'Don't go into business with her, she is a user', 'Leave him, he is a user'. I have also seen 'user' taken as term of opprobrium by environmentalist, that is, someone or some organization that is using up scarce resources. I seem to recall Anthony Hopkin's character using the word in this way in Instinct. Is it possible that the word is heard more often in a negative context than it used to be?

 

[jsteph]

Is it possible that the word is heard more often in a negative context than it used to be?

Yes, but context is what we make it. If we stop the use of 'user' in a non-negative context, such as computer user (I know many PC Techs that would disagree characterizing that as 'non-negative', but that's another thing), then the word user will continue being seen as negative.

I say, to the original post (my bold):

I have been asked to come up with a better term than "users".

that we question the framing of the request--'better' in the opinion of whom?.

--Jim

 

[jsaxe]

Maybe I'm getting old, but "Computer Operator" suggests to me someone with a beard, white lab coat, and smudged glasses, who is covered with paper dust and knows way too much about VMS and chain printers...

jsaxe

Mundus Vult Decipi

 

[Stella740pl]

Maybe I'm getting old, but "Computer Operator" suggests to me someone with a beard, white lab coat, and smudged glasses, who is covered with paper dust and knows way too much about VMS and chain printers...

Maybe that's because I didn't grow up in an English-speaking country, but "Computer Operator" has always been to me a data entry person (dare I say, a data entry girl), sometimes also with a knowledge of how to print the data, back it up onto a floppy, or save it into a different format - and that definition doesn't at all include a professional who uses a computer to do his/her job better. At least that's what, I believe, was a job description of computer operators where I used to work before I moved to USA.

 

[Trevoke]

EDAs (Electronic Device Administrators)

I liked that one by Lunatic. Very pompous and very easy to make fun of : everyone is happy.

The EDAs are DOAs!

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"

 

[CajunCenturion]

I have also seen 'user' taken as term of opprobrium by environmentalist,

opprobrium ==> great word

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[fumei]

Santa (Dave) - oh yeah, I was done before you posted that. This is a done deal. There can be a gazillion amusing suggestions, but none of which are worth any serious time.

As I wrote:

Let's drop this one, unless someone wants to contribute more silly ones. Users they are, and users they shall be.

Gerry
My paintings and sculpture

 

[Gooser]

How about the unpronounceable initialism UWDWTBCU?

Users who don't want to be called users.

--Gooser

 

[Trevoke]

Kind of like the "Programming Language For Which There Is No Pronouncible Acronym" (IIRC) and which has COME FROM (because GOTO is bad) ?

"That time in Seattle... was a nightmare. I came out of it dead broke, without a house, without anything except a girlfriend and a knowledge of UNIX."
"Well, that's something," Avi says. "Normally those two are mutually exclusive."
-- Neal Stephenson, "Cryptonomicon"